This application is based upon and claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-101606 filed on Mar. 30, 2001, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to an indicator unit of a vehicle instrument panel.
JP-A-6-201410 discloses a conventional vehicle indicator unit. In this indicator unit, a graduation board is illuminated after predetermined time has passed after an ignition switch turns on and a pointer begins to emit light.
The indicator unit, however, only delays illuminating the graduation board from the light emission of the pointer that is performed when the ignition switch turns on. Therefore, an appearance of the graduation board is not interesting and lacks originality.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,075 (JP-A-9-42996) proposes an indicator unit having wowing function of its pointer. That is, when an ignition switch turns on, the pointer is driven to turn from the zero-position on a graduation board to a maximum-position thereon.
However, if only the wowing action is performed, the appearance of the graduation board is not interesting and lacks originality, too.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an attractive vehicle indicator unit.
According to the present invention, a graduation board has an arc-shaped graduation portion and translucent graduations disposed along the graduation portion. A pointer is disposed on a front side of the graduation board and moves along the graduations. A plurality of luminous sources that are disposed on a reverse side of the graduation board to light respective graduations. A control unit controls the order of lighting of the luminous sources according to the movement of the pointer when a key switch of the vehicle is operated.